2022
Handwoven rug, made in Tsovagyugh (Armenia)
Natural wool, natural and non natural dyes
100x170cm

With the support of Bourse Transverse - ADAGP, FreeLens and Sometimes Éditions.

Vordan Karmir is a project made with Araks Sahakyan about the 2020 Nagorno-Karabagh war. We used shocking images of beheadings, torture or mutilation of armenian soldiers and civilians that I (Rebecca) personnally received on social media during the war, as part of online harassment and psychological warfare. I transformed it through the process of glitch, making the images uncecognizable and taking away their traumatic power.

Together, we drew a rug. The three central medallions are composed with these glitched images, and are surrounded by drawings inspired by traditional drawings and representing important steps of that war (a computer, a house on fire, a Bayraktar...). The rug is woven using naturally dyed threads with the «vordan karmir» pigment, a historically used pigment in Armenia made from the red cochenilla that lives in the Ararat valley. This species of cochenilla is disappearing in Armenia, but still endemic in Turkey where it is not used. The pigment used for this rug comes from the Mexican red cochenilla. The medallions depicting the glitch images are woven with non naturally dyed threads.

The rug has been woven in the Tsovagyugh village near Sevan lake, using two different technics.

The process, as important as the rug itself, has been documented in a book published by Sometimes Editions in november 2022.